'Soul Surfer' review: After horrific incident, a surfer returns to her sport

Mario PerezFrom left, Dennis Quaid, Helen Hunt and AnnaSophia Robb in "Soul Surfer," a family movie with a strong message about faith.

Can a movie preach a message without getting preachy?

That’s been a problem faced by a lot of films made by, or marketed to, faith-based communities. They have a point that they want to make. And too often they have a scene that yells: Here’s our point!

It’s a danger that “Soul Surfer” mostly avoids — but, like staying on that board, it’s a balancing act.

Beautifully photographed on location in Hawaii, with a few solid names among the cast, this slick family movie is the story of Bethany Hamilton, a young athlete who lost her arm to a shark, but fought her way back to her sport.

Anyone who was watching morning news shows or picking up news weeklies eight years ago remembers the story. But what you might have forgotten was that Bethany credited her Christian faith with helping her persevere.

Movie Review

SOUL SURFER (PG) TriStar/Film District (106 min.) Directed by Sean McNamara. With AnnaSophia Robb, Helen Hunt, Dennis Quaid. Now playing in New Jersey.Rating note: The film contains some disturbing material.Stephen Whitty's Review: TWO AND A HALF STARS

These filmmakers haven’t forgotten, nor should they; religion is a part of this story because it’s a big part of Bethany’s life. Making sure it has the right emphasis on-screen, though, takes work, and the going sometimes gets a little choppy.

Still, the film is helped immeasurably by its setting and some gorgeous surf photography that literally gets inside the curling waves to show us these trim, sun-burnt teens practically defying gravity.

Helping, too, is a solid cast. Dennis Quaid, the go-to guy for dads in family films, is a nice presence as Bethany’s father. Helen Hunt, a little more relaxed than usual, is a plus as her mom (and shows off some surprising surf moves herself).

And AnnaSophia Robb holds it all together as Bethany, suggesting both the girl’s determination and her doubts.

It’s on the faith question that the movie is occasionally clunky. There’s a bit too much of Carrie Underwood as a flatly written youth pastor, and a few too many plugs for the World Vision charity that Bethany devoted her time to.

And, theologically, the film may ask more of some audiences than they’re willing to give. It’s one thing to use Bethany’s story as an example of how faith can keep us going; it’s a bit more to insist that her awful accident was obviously part of a divine plan. (Did the plan have to include permanent maiming?)

Putting those secular objections aside, though, the film is well produced (the production crew are mostly tween-TV vets) and free of bad language, substance abuse and all the other things so many parents cringe at when they take a youngster to the movies.

The faith issue? That’s a difficult balance to strike, and one that never pleases everyone (the film’s IMDB page already contains a viewer complaint that the movie doesn’t proselytize enough). But for plenty of family viewers, this film will catch a wave.